As Egyptian President Mohamed Morsi visits Iran for first time since 1979, Tehran's spiritual leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei makes scathing speech against West

Dudi Cohen, Roi Kais|Last update: 30.08.12 , 11:50

"Iran's motto is nuclear energy for all, nuclear weapons for none," Ayatollah Ali Khamenei declared Thursday, in a speech welcoming Egypt's President Mohammed Morsi
to Tehran. Morsi's visit was the first by an Egyptian leader to Iran
in over three decades.

Iran's state TV in a live broadcast showed Morsi being received with full red-carpet honors by Tehran's vice president in charge of executive affairs Hamid Baghaei in the capital's Mehrabad airport on Thursday.

The world, Khamenei
said "Is in transition towards a new international order and the Non-Aligned Movement (NAM) can and should play a new role."

The summit (Photos: AFP)

He further underlined the need for solidarity among all NAM member-states, saying it was an "obvious necessity" in the current era for establishing this new order.

Khamenei stressed that Iran "will never pursue nuclear weapons
but… will not give up right to nuclear energy,"
which he called the "given right of every country."

Iran, he said, "regards the use of chemical weapons
as an unforgivable sin, but it will not forego its right to use peaceful nuclear energy."

The Ayatollah then accused the "Zionist regime's henchmen" of committing "any and all crimes" adding that it is aided by the West.

NAM nations, he said, believe that the world should not be run "according to the western dictatorship of a handful of countries… This mechanism is unreasonable, unfair and undemocratic.

"The United States
and its allies talk about human rights when in fact they are talking about western interest… torture and assassinations are ignored if they are carried out by the United States or the Zionists," he stated.

Khamenei further blamed the "Zionists" for "waging various wars, massacre and state-sponsored terrorism in the last decades."

He blamed the western world for "supporting and defending the Zionist regime of Israel
against the oppressed Palestinian nation.

"Iran's called for solution to the Palestinian issue,
calling for a "comprehensive referendum to be attended by all the indigenous residents of Palestine, including those refugees who have been away from their motherland for decades to determine the country's fate."

The Iranian leader urged the White House leaders to revise their Middle East
policy and "show courage and opt for the referendum solution" and stop what he called the US' "astronomical spending" on Israel.

Ban at the summit

UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon,
who is attending the summit, did not protest in any way when Khamenei referred to Israeli leaders as "bloodthirsty wolves."

"We must not fear the West," Khamenei concluded.

'UN members do not call for destruction'

In his address before the summit, and without naming Iran, Ban denounced his hosts for threatening to destroy Israel and for denying the Holocaust.

"I strongly reject threats by any member state to destroy another or outrageous attempts to deny historical facts such as the Holocaust," Ban said.

"Claiming that Israel does not have the right to exist or describing it in racist terms is not only wrong but undermines the very principle we all have pledged to uphold," he added.

'We aspire for a better future'

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad
addressed the summit next: He began by asking attendants to commemorate the memory of the slain nuclear scientists
who were assassinated in Tehran in 2011 by observing a moment of silence.

"We have come here together in order to study the situation and move towards a better future for our nations and humanity."

He blamed "some countries" for controlling the world's wealth and leaving the rest to wallow in poverty, saying that many countries have great debt and tap into other nations' resources to cover it.

He then blamed the United States for taking control of the "riches of other nations" illegally.

"The beauty of human society has been systematically attacked and there is great effort to impose a certain kind of life on world nations that would leave them without social identity," he said.

"Lasting peace and security is being turned into an unattainable wish… Why is that?" The Iranian president asked.

Ahmadinejad stressed that "Arrogant powers are blatantly supporting terrorism," and further accused the UN Security Council of being "powerless before the nations that support the Zionist regime.

"Some nations are warmongers and only care about their own interests and so they don’t care and trample on basic human rights."

World order, he continued, must change: "Global management must change and we all must stand up for that… If we wait for years than our time will also come to an end without being able to make a change in the right direction."

Ahmadinejad urged countries worldwide to abandon "aspirations of monopoly and dominance and opt… for the joint management of world affairs."

NAM, he said, can have a key role in world affairs and the Islamic Republic has a lot to offer the world in technology, finances and legislation.

The UN is ready for NAM to help it in its reform and to help it "reach itss governing potential," he added.

"If we tap into this great global movement and use it the right way we will be able to usher in a beautiful new era for humanity," he said.